A tad older...one fit as a whistle...one lovely chef

This past weekend Birch and I became another year older and wiser.  Birch also became even more fit and awesome as he participated in the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon with one of his younger brother's, Logan. 

 I don't personally relate to the natural buzz that Birch gets after competing in something like this but to Birch it is a perfect way to stay fit and celebrate his birthday.  Next year Birch's number will be -40- and he will actually start a whole ten minutes later than the "younger" guys.

 First legs was the 1.5K swim -- you can tell why these boys stay warm in the winter :)

 Then the 40K road bike ride -- I hear there are some killer hills on this route.

 Coming in from just finishing the bike portion.

 Last portion was the 10K run -- I'm wondering how he can be smiling at this point of the race?!

During the race the kids had a great time playing at the park with some of their cousins.

Alysee and cousin Lucy were lovin' soaking up the sun.

 

 Coming in to the finish line.

 Winkin' at his cheerleaders!

 Check out these happy brothers -- their times were SO close to each other!  Nothing like some friendly brotherly competition!  Logan is hoping that with Birch turning 40 year's old next year he can finally beat his big brother :)

Birch's times:  

1.5 K Swim (32 min 45 sec)

40K Road Bike (1 hr 24 min)

10 K Run (46 min 50 sec)

Total time (including transitions): 2 hours 47 minutes  (I think he beat his time from last year by about 5 minutes)

 Next stop...

 Liberty Lake -- everyone had a great time in the lake.

 Alysee

 Nate-dog

 The Spokane Ditto brothers just bought a boat together and we were lucky enough to be invited for a little afternoon tubing.  Tyler and Nate had a great time!

 Coop, Nate, and cousin Addison

 Nate and Addy on a hunt to find some swamp life.

 We enjoyed a super tasty and fun family dinner at Brent and Deena's home in Post Falls, ID.  The girls all invited (I mean demanded) the "men" to learn and perform a dance to "Call Me Maybe."  It was hilarious!!!

 Tyler had fun on the go-cart.

 We also sneaked in three super mini-photoshoots -- one of the newest Ditto -- Dallin Ditto is just ten days old (born to Brent and Deena); a family photoshoot for my sister Emily's family and Logan and Julia's family.

 My sis-in-law Annie made Birch and I a delicious cake to celebrate our birthdays.  After dinner we sent the kids in the house to watch movies while us adults all went in the woods to watch "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol."  Brent had worked really hard and setting up a deluxe outdoor movie theater with great sound and a large projected movie.  It was super fun even though we didn't get the kids to bed until 12:30 am.

 Birch ordered this cute apron from sexyaprons.com -- just kidding...but anyone who lives around me knows that I wear an apron 24/7.  I hate stains!  I also celebrated my birthday the following day after with a shopping solo, massage, pedicure, dinner at a fancy restaurant with my Lover, and an evening framing our new family photos.  Lovely!!!

 On Sunday morning we dragged our tired bodies out of bed and went to sacrament meeting with Grannie.  Then on the way home we made a stop at Pines Cemetery to see Birch's dad's grave.

 It was a special time for Birch to share some memories of his dad with the kids.

 It's been neat this summer to have visited several cemeteries and feel connected to loved ones that have passed on.

 Birch and I feel grateful to be in good health and madly in love!

Cousins, Surgery, Fun...oh my!

The main reason for coming home via Spokane was to leave Nate and Coop at Annie and Kelly's house so they could attend Sports Camp with their cousin.  We ended up leaving Alysee at Logan and Julia's house, Nate and Coop at Annie and Kelly's, and brought home Sage to our house for the week.  The dynamics sure changed at our house when we had a fourteen, eleven, and two four year old's.  It was such a fun week for everyone!

 Well, maybe not so fun for Alex on Thursday.  He had surgery to widen his ear canal and clean out his middle ear.  Birch had to work so it was just the two of us at surgery.  Alex was really brave and did great waking up out of anesthesia.

 The surgery seems to be a success.  ENT, Dr. Ryan Black, was able to widen his ear canal almost double.  We have learned that over time that his canal starts to close up and so this type of surgery is need about every two years.  Dr. Black made a slit in his canal and folded back the skin and then drilled the canal wider and then folded the skin back.  Then then placed two wicks (similar to a tampon) in his canal and filled them with an antibiotic to hold the skin in place and help in the healing process.  We returned for a post-surgery appointment yesterday and everything is healing great.

 Chloe also had another doctor's appointment for her arm.  The healing process is coming along nicely for her as well though the doctor still wanted to keep her arm fully protected for a while longer.

 John, the cast tech, has become a good friend of ours.  He is really cute with Chloe each week and draws fun cartoons for her while we wait for the doctor.  This is John using the "tickle pickle" to cut off her cast.

 Chloe got a waterproof cast just prior to our trip to Utah.  It was so nice to have a shorty cast and WONDERFUL to be able to enjoy all the water activities.  This visit John actually made her a removable cast that she can take off for water activities.

 Sagey and Chloe had the time of their lives all week.  We went swimming, played at friend's houses, went to a reggae concert in the park with Happy Meals, hours of playing Barbies, and Sleeping Beauty dance camp each morning.

 We love this little girl!  It has been so fun to watch Sage grow up into such a sweet four year old.  She is hilarious with her antics!

 The girls LOVED Sleeping Beauty dance camp each morning.  The final day they dressed up for a family performance.

  They did a great job on their dance!

 You can see why we call Chloe's new cast her "Santa Claus Cast." The week flew by for these girls!

 Chloe LOVED the princess sparkles that her teacher put on her eyes and lips.

Back in Spokane:

 Alysee was in heaven having a new students (all her cousins) for her school.  Alysee enjoyed every moment of her week away (even the day she threw up and Aunti Julia took such good care of her).  They packed the week with swimming, movies, playing school and orphanage.  She thought Aunti Julia was such a good cook and can't understand why I have never made Shepherds Pie before.  She came home exhausted and full of fun stories from her week away.

Nate and Coop spent the week with this cute family -- Annie and Kelly.  They spent the majority of the days at the Jackson's Sports Academy learning/playing all kinds of indoor and outdoor sports.  The evenings were filled with playing at the park, swimming, and delicious meals.  They had such a good week too!

Friday night all the kids went to Uncle Brent and Aunti Deena's house for a Cousin Campout.  They  planned super fun games, an outdoor movie, go-cart rides, s'mores, and sleeping out in a tent.  I don't think anyone fell asleep until 1 am.

Birch drove up late Friday night to Spokane and tucked in Sage into bed (she was missing her Mila) and went on a early morning thirty-five mile bike ride with several of his brothers (they are in training for a triathlon and their ABH bike trip) Saturday morning.  Everyone was home by the late afternoon just in time for Birch and I to finish off the day with a hot date.

Phew...what a week!

The Long Way

Just because we enjoy driving so much we thought it would be fun to come home the loooong way.  Friday night we left Orem around 9:30 pm after picking up Alex for the last time from EFY.  We drove by my old elementary school and house in Orem for nostalgic purposes and then started our trek to Pocatello, Idaho. 

Midweek through our trip Alysee had a life long dream fulfilled of getting to go to her bestie Hannah Ralphs' house for a couple of days in Pocatello.  When I presented her the option of staying with us in Utah and doing fun stuff as a family or going to Hannah's house for two days it took her about fifteen seconds to loudly yell "Hannah's house."  You couldn't have seen two giddier girls than these two when we met up to do the exchange.

 Hannah moved from our home town about three years ago and ever sense the two have been faithful pen-pals.  Alysee and Hannah made a list of thirty things they just HAD to do over their two days together.  They accomplished each one -- boy did they pack it in!  The two had so much fun making jewelry together.

 Both girls love to catch bugs -- check out the butterfly on Alysee's finger.  Alysee had the time of her life.  I love to watch these two little girls pick up on their friendship just where it left off.  I can totally see them as college roommates in a few years.  The whole family stayed Friday night at the Ralphs' house and enjoyed visiting and a tasty breakfast in the morning.

 Our next stop was Missoula, MT.  We drove by our old house (that sounds much more grand than it was -- cinder-block concrete family housing at the University of Montana).  Then we picked up some lunch and went to Carr's park, the home of the famous carousel.  Chloe was so excited she could hardly finish two chicken nuggets before riding.

Alysee + an animal=a slice of heaven

 Cool artsy shot that Birch took of Nate

 Before leaving Missoula we wanted to go see baby Sara Elizabeth's grave.  We have only been back once in the past eleven years.

 Her grave-site was a little unkempt so we all dusted it off and pulled up long grass around it before each person had a chance to place a flower on her grave.  The kids talk regularly of Sara Elizabeth.  They often ask questions like, "How old would she be now if she were alive?"  "Would you have had Tyler if she hadn't died?"  "I can't wait to die so I can see her."

It was strange for me the emotions that arose from being at Sara Elizabeth's grave.  It's been a long time since her passing but the feelings and memories still seemed quite raw and vivid in my mind.  Birch and I had a moment to hug and reflect back on what we have learned since that time.  We also still have such gratitude for those people in our lives during this tough time that cared for our family.  It was a time in our lives where we were very independent from our extended family, had no money (that is not an understatement), worked endlessly to keep our family afloat through odd jobs and hard work at grad school, learned by fire how to parent, and went through some REALLY tough trials.  Even as all the memories of that time came rushing back into my mind, the heartache and stress, I still wouldn't trade that time in our lives for an easier road.  Birch and I grew close together and we learned that we can do hard things!  It is also a time period where I felt so alone and at the same time where I felt the closest to God.  Not that I want a repeat...but I am thankful for the lessons learned.

 After leaving Missoula we drove the finally leg of the day to Spokane.  Emily and Ryan had pulled out every blanket they own to make us all a nice place to bed down for the night.  We were all so excited to see Mila and Sage in the morning.  Neither of the girls let us down -- we all got big hugs in the morning from each of them.  It was so fun to see Emi and Ryan's new home in Spokane and be able to better visualize where they are now living.

 Mila is a favorite at our house -- I think she has us each twisted around her little finger.   Although she is talking so much more our favorite word that she says is "Birchy."  She says it with such passion and excitement!

We went to church with the Andersen's and then delivered half of our kids to various cousin's houses for the week before returning home.  

Even though our trek back from Utah was a long one we packed it full of memorable stops, hours of the Brady Bunch and Dr. Quinn- Medicine Woman, and tons of good treats.  Oh yeah, I need to share the best idea ever.  Before leaving for Utah my friend shared this idea which was a real hit with everyone.  I packaged one item for every hour of the trip in a lunch bag and then each hour the kids could pick out whatever they wanted.  The contents ranged from stickers, a small toy, bagel, apple, package of gum, and lots of treats.  It was fun to see what the kids picked to eat first and sure made the hours zoom by a little faster.

What a wonderful trip!